Thomas Stonor, 7th Baron Camoys

Ralph Thomas Campion George Sherman Stonor, 7th Baron Camoys GCVO PC DL (born 16 April 1940), is a British peer and banker who served as Lord Chamberlain of the United Kingdom from 1998 to 2000. He was the first Roman Catholic Lord Chamberlain since the Reformation.

Early life

The 7th Baron Camoys is the son of Sherman Stonor, 6th Baron Camoys and Mary Jeanne, daughter of Herbert Marmaduke Stourton. On his father's side, he is a descendant of the Talbot Earls of Shrewsbury, the Nevills of Abergavenny and, through an illegitimate line, the de la Pole Dukes of Suffolk. On his mother's side, he is descended from Charles II of England and Scotland through that monarch's illegitimate daughter, Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield.

Education

Lord Camoys was educated at Eton College and Balliol College of the University of Oxford finishing with an MA degree.

Career

Lord Camoys' main career was in banking. He was General Manager/Director of National Provincial and Rothschild (London) Ltd. in 1968, and Managing Director of Rothschild Intercontinental Bank Ltd. in 1969. After the purchase of Rothschild Intercontinental Bank by American Express in 1975, he was named CEO and Managing Director of Amex Bank Ltd, 1975–77, and Chairman between 1977–78. Lord Camoys was Managing Director of Barclays Merchant Bank from 1978–84, and Executive Vice-Chairman from 1984–86.

After the widespread reforms of the City of London's financial structures in 1986 (Big Bang). Barclays Merchant Bank became Barclays de Zoete Wedd (BZW), of which Lord Camoys was the first Chief Executive from 1986 to 1988, and Deputy Chairman from 1988 to 1998. BZW later became Barclays Capital. He was a Director of Barclays Bank International Ltd between 1980–84, and Barclays Bank Plc between 1984–94.

Lord Camoys was Chairman of Jacksons of Piccadilly from 1968 to 1985. He was Deputy Chairman of Sotheby's from 1993–97. He was a director of Mercantile Credit Co Ltd from 1980–84, National Provident Institution from 1982–93, the Administrative Staff College from 1989 – 2000, 3i Group Plc from 1991–2002, and Perpetual from 1994–2000. He was President of the Mail Users Association from 1977 to 1984. He has been a member of the Court of Assistants of the Fishmongers Company since 1980. He served the latter livery company as Prime Warden from 1992–93. He has been a Steward of Henley Royal Regatta since 1978, and President of The River and Rowing Museum since 1997.

Governmental career

Following the death of his father, he became the 7th Lord Camoys as well as a member of the House of Lords on 8 March 1976. He was a select committee on the European Economic Community (EEC) between 1979 and 1981, and a member of the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England from 1985 to 1987 (now English Heritage) and the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts from 1987 to 1994.

He was a Lord in Waiting from 1992–97 to Queen Elizabeth II, and has been a Permanent Lord in Waiting since 2000. He was Lord Chamberlain of the United Kingdom from 1998 to 2000, when he retired due to ill health. He followed David George Patrick Coke Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie and was succeeded by Baron Luce. He was the first Roman Catholic Lord Chamberlain since the Reformation.^[1]

Religious career

He was a consultor of the Extraordinary Session of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See from 1991 until 2006. Lord Camoys was appointed Chairman of The Tablet Trust in June 2009.^[2]

Marriage and family life

The seventh Baron married Elisabeth Mary Hyde Parker, daughter of Sir William Hyde Parker, 11th Bt. of Melford Hall, Suffolk, in 1966. The couple has the following issue:

• The Hon. Alina Mary Stonor (born 1967) – she married Simon Barrowcliff in 1994; the couple has three children.
• The Hon. Emily Mary Julia Stonor (born 1969) – she married John Dalrymple, 14th Earl of Stair (born 1961) in 2006; the couple has a son and a daughter.
• The Hon. Sophie Ulla Stonor (born 29 September 1971) – she married James Alastair Stourton, younger son of Charles Stourton, 26th Baron Mowbray, in 1993; the marriage was dissolved via annulment in 1997; she remarried in 2001 to a Bavarian nobleman, Moritz Florian Maria Freiherr von Hirsch; the couple has two sons.
• The Hon. (Ralph) William Robert Thomas Stonor (born 10 September 1974), heir apparent to the barony – he married, in 2004, Lady Ailsa Fiona Mackay, the younger daughter of Peter Mackay, 4th Earl of Inchcape; the couple has two sons and a daughter.

Lord Camoys' ancestral home is Stonor Park, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.^[3]

Honours

• Lord Camoys was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in 1998, and a Privy Counsellor (PC) in the same year.
• He has been a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Oxfordshire since 1993.
• He received the Nepalese Order of Gorkha Dadshina Baku, 1st Class, in 1981.
• He received a Honorary D.Litt degree from the University of Sheffield in 2001.
• In 2006 he was made Knight Grand Cross of the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great (GCSG) by Pope Benedict XVI.

Ancestry

References